We can retrieve the meaning of printed words with remarkable ease and speed. I will present EEG/MEG and fMRI results that characterise the spatio-temporal brain dynamics of visual word recognition. Neural and behavioural data suggest that lexical and semantic retrieval processes begin in parallel around 200 ms after word presentation. The task modulation of early brain responses indicates that these retrieval processes are best described as flexible rather than automatic. I will present a novel methodological approach to extract single-trial time courses for EEG/MEG components in order to investigate these brain processes in more detail. The brain localisation of early lexical and semantic effects suggests a prominent role of the left anterior temporal lobe in the corresponding retrieval processes, lending support to the hub-and-spoke model of lexico-semantic processing.

However, in a movement priming EEG/MEG study, we found a link between cortical motor areas only with posterior superior temporal gyrus, in the absence of behavioural effects. I will discuss to what degree an optimal comprehender should rely on sensorimotor systems during semantic processing.